January 30, 2009 "I BE GOOD"

We have no pictures for today but we do have a new phrase.  Yes, you got it a phrase.  Sophia was running around the house making me crazy taking everything apart that I was cleaning up. I would pick up her toys and put them in the storage bins only to find less than 5 minutes later she had taken everything out and put it all over the floor.  The same went for her hair bows, several other toys that have several parts, her zoo, her puzzles and so on.  I was getting really frustrated. I was trying to get everything picked up so I could make dinner and get ready to go to work.   I told her she was going to have to take her nap now because she wasn't being a good girl. I picked her up and put her in her bed. I rarily punish her because she is usually a very good child.  I also try never to associate her bed with anything negative.  It just so happened that it was really naptime or a little after and she was being destructive.  So, I told her it was naptime and calmly put her in her bed. She started crying and fussing. Then, she looked me straight in the eye and said, " I BE GOOD." and she repeated it, "I BE GOOD! I BE GOOD!" I looked at her and couldn't believe what I was hearing. She was telling me she would be good I guess so she could get back out of bed.  

Until now, she has not used any three word phrases.  I was stunned. A year ago at 4 months on January 7 she said her first word "milk".  I knew then I had a smart child on my hands. Not only is milk a hard word for a baby to say, it is not a common word for a baby so young to understand.  Kids don't usually talk that early.  Three word phrases in context, how could this be? Whatever am I going to do with a kid speaking in three word phrases at 16 months?  I guess I will have to stay one step ahead of her and challenge her.  Apparently, she is smarter than I realize.  

It was so cute the way she looked at me and said, " I BE GOOD!"  that I just had to stop myself for a second and give her a big hug and kiss. I will never forget her first word a year ago or the look on her face when she told me she would be good.  Of course, it is not hard to figure out what happened next, I took her out of her bed and said, "I understand you Sophia. You will be good for mommy so I will let you stay up a little longer. Please do not destroy the house and I will turn on Babies for you meaning the DVD "Baby Signing Time", her very favorite DVD.   She was so excited that "Babies" was coming on the TV that she nearly jumped out of my arms with delight. She kept her promise, she was good and didn't undue anything else that I cleaned up this evening.  Her daddy put her to bed at 7pm which is way early, but that is okay. I better hit the sack before I stay up all night and can't function in the morning. I know Sophia will be up bright and early since she went to bed at 7pm.  Good Night!  

January 28, 2009 Grandma's Old Rocking Chair

The Old Baby Rocking Chair has been passed down to Sophia from her Grandma and Great Grandma.

This rocking chair has somehow made it through 3 generations. My mother rocked in this chair as a small child. I played with it as well and can remember rocking in it when I was younger. I do remember it being broken at some point but have no recollection of breaking it. I do know that Mike, Nicholas, and I played on it as we ran through my grandmother's house as kids. My father miraculously repaired it recently for Sophia.  The arm was completely off and the wood was really rough. Dad was able to sand it down and repair the very badly damaged arm.  I couldn't believe it was all back in one piece for my dearest Sophia considering I took it over to him in pieces. I didn't hold out a lot of hope for anyone to fix it.  If anyone could fix it, I knew my dad could fix it and he did.   I have learned over the years that my dad can fix just about anything. 

It took a while for Sophia to warm up to this chair. I have put her in it several times over the last few weeks and she always screams and cries "Mum,Mum, Up!"  She is not a fan of moving objects.  I have been putting her dolls in the rocking chair everyday.  Everyday she throws them off of the chair and onto the carpet.  She doesn't want her dolls in the chair either.  
Tonight was different.  I had just prepared her for bed by putting on her warm footed pajamas seen here and reading books.   After we finished reading books, she got down off my lap and looked at this rocking chair and sat down. I sat on the floor rocking her in it and singing songs. "Rock a bye baby on the tree top....Down will come Sophia cradle and all."  Here she looks happy. I am not sure if she is laughing at my horrible singing or if she is just happy to be rocking in the chair.  We all love you.   Sophia love and enjoy that old rocking chair now that it is back in one piece, it is yours darling.  I am such a sentimental sap for stuff like this. I am not sure why, but I have a very strong attachment to this little chair. 

January 28, 2009 Snowbunny baby's First Snow

Below, Sophia is so proud of her first snow playing experience as displayed by her smile.  Maybe she is just happy to be back inside and out of all those layers of clothing. 

So here it is the long awaited First Snow for Sophia.  She didn't really like it. She was very unsure of the whole idea once we got outside. 




 

The neighbor suggested that Sophia stand on the sewer cover 

Maybe walking on all fours would help me move around in this stuff mom calls snow.

Our neighbor took a picture of Sophia and I. Sophia just wanted me to hold her.

I am sure !Sophia is thinking the snow is up to my knees mom.  Now what do I do?  Sophia exclaimed, "Mama, Up! Up!"

All bundled up and ready to play in the snow.  Can we go out yet?

March 2008 Funny Face - What?

So I was telling mom about how funny this photo was from last March and she didn't know what I was talking about; so here it is mom!  Sophia making a really funny face.  You have to love this expression.   I think she is thinking,  "What are you talking about mom?"

Christmas Day add a little snow and she is ready to go!

All we need is a little snow and she is ready to go.  By the way it did snow on Christmas day here but we were busy inside where it was warm with presents and food all day.

"I wonder if I could hook this up to Brandy the dog and have her pull me through the pretty snow outside." I am sure that is what she was thinking.

Well, maybe she decided to just pull some toys around the messy family room.

Sophia taking some toys for a little ride around the house in her sled.

January 27, 2009 PiggyTails and Pretty Bows

Sophia's Grandma needed to see a pic of Sophia so here you are Grandma. Sorry, we have been sick and not taking a lot of photos.  Her ear is still hurting after being on Amoxicillin for 4 days so we went to the Pediatrician again this morning. He gave her Augmentin and some drops to put in her ears for pain.  She no longer has fever but she is still holding her ear and saying "Ow, Ow!"   I ask her where it hurts and she points to her ear and does the ASL sign for hurt.

I tried to cheer her up by putting her hair in "hair bows as we like to call them."  I thought we would try two pigtails today for a change.  We usually only put one pigtail on top of her head but her hair is getting longer so I thought I would give it a whirl and try this.  I just need her to hold still. It took me quite a while to get them even and straight.  It looks cute, I think. I love having a beautiful girl and look forward to fixing her hair and putting in fancy barrettes and hair bows.  If I can help it, she will be a girly girl just like her mom.

January 17, 2009 Play it Again Sophia...Entertaining Sick Mommy

Playing the piano to entertain mommy. What a beautiful tune Sophia!  

Sophia looks so tiny next to the BabyGrand. We bought this piano when I was pregnant with Sophia for her hoping she would really love it.  I think she loves it at least for now.

She is using both hands to play a little tune. Yeah Sophia!

Climbing onto the piano stool as mommy shouts, wait I will help you. No worries mom, I can do this myself thinks Sophia.

Hey, look at that mommy polished the piano like she does weekly and I can see myself in the reflection. How cool is that?

I have been really sick for the last two days and trying to stay away from my darling daughter so that she doesn't catch what I have. I have been literally hiding at the other end of the house in my bed other than a cup of hot tea and a meal here or there. My husband has really taken over caring for Sophia while allowing me to rest. So, this morning, I told Sophia that mommy is really sick and cannot play with her. But I told her I would love to hear some piano music. I can still hear music if I am in the other room. Sophia did not waste one second thinking about that. She ran over to the piano. She climbed up onto the piano stool all by herself. I nearly jumped out of my skin fearful that she would fall and hurt herself. As you can see I guess I was just being a helicopter mom hovering and worrying too much. She had no trouble climbing up there and sat right down and started playing. If only she would keep up this enthusiasm to please mommy as she grows older. Yeah, right, a mom can dream can't she?

Once we realized she was ready to play music on the piano, Scott grabbed the camera and captured all her piano playing for mommy. I told her it made mommy feel better to hear such beautiful music so she kept right on playing each time we applauded for her. Above are just a few of the snapshots with the full slide show of the event below.

January 15, 2009 Dualing Vacuums, Mommy's Lil Helper

Sophia and I have been sick for the past couple days so the housework was getting behind. I told Sophia that we needed to run the vacuum really quick. I grabbed the vacuum and started pushing it around. Pretty soon, she grabbed her Elmo and Cookie Monster vacuum to help me. We made the Vroom sound. I paused a moment to grab a quick photo of her helping me and she posed for the picture with both vacuums.

January 14, 2009 More New Words

Sunday Morning Sophia asked for an appo. It took me a few minutes to determine what she was asking. We were in her bedroom and she started saying "Appo! Appo!" I asked what are you saying, " Apple, Elmo, or Elbow? So I did the baby sign for apple and she smiled. I asked her about the other choices and she made no response. Then she said, "Appo" and put her fist near the apple of her cheek to tell me apple. Okay, I replied. We will have apples with breakfast. She was so excited when she realized that I understood her; she clapped and smiled.


Monday we went to the library and borrowed some different books to read. Sophia likes to say yellow so I picked up a book showing things that are yellow. One of the things in the book was a bumblebee. As I read the book to her, she repeated, "bumbobee!" I was delighted. Then, I made the buzzing sound for her. She imitated me and made a buzzing sound too. I was so impressed. She still remembers it today when I showed her the bumblebee in the book.

Tuesday Sophia was sick so we didn't get any pictures.

Wednesday Sophia added a new word to her vocabulary. The new word of the day was cracker or Sophia as pronounces it "Cwacko ." Most of us pronounce it cracker. Because Sophia was sick all I gave her was crackers and Jello. She quickly learned that if she asked for a cwacko, mommy would give her one. It is so cool that she can ask for something if she is hungry rather than me having to guess if she is hungry. This also let me know she was starting to feel a little better because she was getting her appetite back. I hope this is a good sign that she will be better soon.

January 11, 2009 Can Can, I mean Hat's Off or On, Happy Birthday Mike!

We had a birthday party for Mike, my brother, Sophia's uncle. Sophia loved the dinner and cake and ice cream. She helped Uncle Mike unwrap his presents.

She was in rare form being a little clown once I put her pajamas on her for the night. Great Grandma put some Dominoes in a tin can for Sophia to open and play with to keep her entertained. It worked for a short while,but Sophia had other ideas for the tin can. To her it looked like a "hat". She put it on her head and showed me. The family got quite the kick out of her antics as she tried to balance the can hat on her head. Once she got it to stay on she danced around on the floor next to her Grandma. She turned around and around and let all the shutterbugs capture her dancing hat moment. It was so funny and we laughed so hard that my mom commented to me that her face actually hurt from laughing so hard. She was dancing in response to our laughing and kicking her legs around and bouncing. It was funny, I can't get it out of my head a couple days later. 

For the whole experience see the slide show below.

January 10, Elmo goes for a ride in wagon.

Sophia decided to take Elmo for a ride in her little Mega Blocks wagon. She pulled him around for a while and then hopped into the wagon with him. After a short while of sitting and playing with Elmo she gave him kisses.

January 9, 2009 Sophia goes for a ride in her wagon

Today was unseasonably warm for January in the upper 50s to 60s so we took a walk. I took a few photos of Sophia but couldn't get her to look at the camera because the sun was so bright. The wind was blowing which made her ponytail stand straight up in the air.

We put Brandy on her leash and packed Sophia into her wagon with her blankets and walked around the neighborhood for about an hour. We realy enjoyed the warm breeze and the bright sunshine on our walk. Not only did the dog enjoy sniffing things and exploring everything while taking a long walk, Sophia enjoyed looking at all the things we saw along the way. She watched the kids on the playground at the school. She looked closely at the trees and grass and all the scenery along our path. I can't wait until Spring so that we can take lots of walks in her Radio Flyer wagon.

January 7, 2009 Stealing Daddy's M & Ms from his office

I was reading email etc online and heard Sophia rattling around in Daddy's office. I looked up and she was stealing M&Ms out of Daddy's M&Ms golf guys holder.  
By the time I figured out what she was doing and grabbed the camera, she was eating the yummy bits of chocolate wrapped in the candy shell and saying "yummy yum."

I really intended for her to not have chocolate until she was say about 4 years old or so, but she fooled me this morning and helped herself.

Here she is showing mommy how to get the M&Ms out of the container by pulling the lever golf club down.  I put it on the floor in the photos because the window would have backlit the photos since it was sunny outside today.

The funny thing is that container has been empty for about a month or two because I kept forgetting to buy M&Ms.  Last night I picked up a few bags of M&Ms and Scott refilled it.  Sophia was in bed when that all took place. How did she know that there was candy in it?  Did she smell the chocolate?  I can't figure out how she knew the candy was there.  She knew it somehow though.

January 6, 2009 Washing Blanket "Naa NEE"

The pictures tell this story better than I can. I showed Sophia that we had to wash her favorite blanket.  We put it in the washer and closed the door.  We addded the detergent and started the machine. Looking sad waiting for her blanket to be washed........................................
Still waiting for her blanket to finish washing.  You may notice that she has her Elmo blanket that mommy made at her feet.  She had just let go of it and it fell to the floor..
Still waiting....................................................................................................

Hurray!  Blanket is clean and mommy took it out of the dryer.  While I was unloading the dryer, Sophia climbed into the basket with her clothes and covered herself with her favorite blanket.  Blanket is clean and soft and warm from the dryer.